Irish News Interview with Dolours Price

“Ms. Price’s interviews by Boston College were the subject of news reports published in Northern Ireland in 2010, in which Ms. Price admitted her involvement in the murder and “disappearances” of at least four persons whom the IRA targeted: Jean McConville, Joe Lynskey, Seamus Wright, and Kevin McKee. See Exhibits1 and 2. Moreover, according to one news report, the reporter was permitted to listen to portions of Ms. Price’s Boston College interviews. Id.” – US Government’s Opposition to Motion to Quash, page 4.

• REVELATIONS: Dolours Price in her home
• NAMED AS ‘OC': Gerry Adams
• Old Bailey bomber contacts Disappeared Commission in bid to end agony of three murder victims’ families
• She says Gerry Adams was her ‘OC’

OLD Bailey bomber Dolours Price is to give vital information to the commission for the Disappeared which could end decades of agony for the families of three missing west Belfast men.

Ms Price (59), who was once married to Oscar-nominated actor Stephen Rea, insists that her IRA activities were carried out on the direct orders of her then ‘officer commanding’ (OC), Gerry Adams.

The Sinn Fein president last night said: “I reject entirely any allegations made by Dolours Price.

“She is a long-standing opponent of Sinn Fein and the peace process.

“In addition she clearly has her own issues to resolve.”

Ms Price yesterday contacted the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains. She is believed to be the most senior republican to have done so to date.

It is understood she has vital information, including details about the disappearance of ex-monk turned IRA intelligence officer Joe Lynskey and of alleged IRA informers Seamus Wright and Kevin McKee.

Ms Price says she drove Mr Lynskey across the border to Co Monaghan days before he is believed to have been murdered and secretly buried. His disappearance in 1972 came about after an affair with a fellow republican’s wife which ended with Mr Lynskey ordering the unsanctioned shooting of his love rival in direct breach of IRA rules.

Ms Price is believed to have agreed to reveal previously unknown details on other members of the Disappeared including the last days of Mr Wright and Mr McKee who were also abducted and murdered during the same period in 1972.

She is expected to tell the commission she was present in a car that took the two missing men to the Republic after they were outed as informers.

Ms Price is also said to have been privy to details of the final days of mother-of-10 Jean McConville, whose remains have already been recovered.

Ms Price was convicted in 1973 of a London bombing campaign in which one man died and 200 were injured in two massive explosions. She is receiving medical treatment for problems including post-traumatic stress disorder arising from her time in prison in England when she was force-fed after embarking on a hunger strike.

Reputation for being ruthless saw rapid move up IRA ranks

DOLOURS Price is one of the most significant names of the Provisional IRA campaign of the early Troubles.

The grammar-educated schoolgirl, who went on to marry actor Stephen Rea, was in her final year of teacher training at St Mary’s College on the Falls Road in Belfast when she was arrested in 1973 for her part in an IRA London bombing campaign.

While this may have been the first time the public became aware of the name Dolours Price, at just 22 years of age she had already risen rapidly through the ranks ofthe IRA.

She earned herself a reputation as a ruthless IRA member who was privy to the most secret of information.

She had been the leader of the nine-person bombing team in England which included the now Sinn Fein junior minister Gerry Kelly, as well as leading a previous scouting mission.

A former close confidante of Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams, she has always maintained he was her ‘ officer commanding’ throughout her younger days in the IRA.

During those early days of the Troubles she would have been in daily contact with Mr Adams, from whom she claims to have taken direct orders.

This version of events has always been denied by the West Belfast MP who says he was never a member of the IRA.

She joined the paramilitary group, along with her younger sister Marion, following internment in 1971.

At that time women were not permitted to be full members of the IRA and instead were recruited to act in a supportive role in the ranks of the Cumann na mBan.

Prior to internment, she described herself as a “protesting student” – a member of the left-wing People’s Democracy. However, her republican heritage was unquestionable.

Her father Albert Price was a veteran IRA man, a survivor of the 1940s campaign. He had been interned in the Curragh Camp along with former Sinn Fein president Ruairi O Bradaigh.

Upon deciding to join the IRA she went to see one of the founders of the Provisional movement, Sean Mac Stiofain, who instructed her to enlist in Cumann na mBan.

However, republican sources say the middle-class college girl protested at this, saying she did not want to “bandage IRA men’s wounds” – she wanted to be a “fighting soldier”.

A special army council convention was held and it was decided to allow women to become full members of the IRA.

Dolours Price is said to have been the first woman sworn in. She was quickly joined by many others including her sister Marion.

The fledgling republican leadership embraced this new attractive, well-spoken and university-educated breed of articulate IRA member.

It quickly became evident that women could play a key role. Marion Price has in the past told how she managed to talk her way through a British army checkpoint after being stopped in a car packed with explosives because she was wearing a mini-skirt.

Dolours Price has publicly revealed little of her paramilitary exploits, bound by the IRA’s strict code of silence.

However, she took part in some of the most controversial and reviled acts of the Troubles.

The disappearing of IRA murder victims tested the loyalty of even the most dedicated republicans.

She is believed to possess previously undisclosed information about at least four Disappeared victims.

The body of mother-of-10 Jean McConville has already been recovered, discovered accidentally on a beach in Carlingford in 2003. Several previous digs failed.

Ms Price (59) is believed to have been one of the IRA members involved in transporting Mrs McConville, an alleged informer, to the Republic.

What the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR) will be more keen to hear is what information she has regarding the disappearance of three IRA men whose remains are still missing.

Joe Lynskey, Seamus Wright and Kevin McKee all disappeared from west Belfast during the later part of 1972. Mr Wright and Mr McKee were identified as alleged informers after the discovery of the Four Square Laundry British spy ring.

Mr Lynskey, a former trainee monk, was murdered after a sex scandal involving an affair with a fellow IRA man’s wife.

This alone did not seal his fate but the fatal error of trying to have his love rival killed, ordering a younger IRA man to shoot him, did.

Ms Price’s senior role in the IRA, including her part in the disappearance of victims, is said to have taken its toll on her mentally.

This and the effect of years of incarceration in prison in England have left their scars. She has acknowledged that she is a recovering alcoholic, receiving ongoing treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Both Price sisters were given early release from prison in the 1980s on health grounds.

Dolours Price made initial contact with the ICLVR yesterday in an attempt to help trace the remains of Mr Lynskey.

Friends say she held Mr Lynskey in very high esteem and struggles daily with guilt surrounding the circumstances of his disappearance.

Senior commissioners are expected to fly into Ireland within the next week to speak with Ms Price about her knowledge of the three Disappeared victims.

The commission was set up by the British and Irish governments in 1999 with special legislation giving limited protection from prosecution for information given to the ICLVR.

Convicted bomber could shed light on location of 14th victimNow new information from former senior IRA woman Dolours Price could help shed light on the whereabouts of Mr Lynskey’s burial place. She is also said to have vital information relating to Seamus Wright and Kevin McKee, also abducted in 1972, whose bodies remain undiscovered

IN APRIL 1999 the British and Irish governments announced the setting up of the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR) to search for the bodies of missing republican murder victims.

Known as the Disappeared, until this week there were 13 people on the official list of victims.

The addition of former trainee Cistercian monk Joe Lynskey takes that number to 14.

The IRA only recently admitted involvement in the 1972 disappearance of Mr Lynskey.

The Irish News revealed the IRA intelligence officer as a previously unreported Disappeared victim last December.

Asked by The Irish News last week about the case of Mr Lynskey, Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams said he knew him and said that “obviously now anyone with information should come forward”.

“It is a very sad story and I’m sure it’s very very difficult for his family,” Mr Adams said.

“I know his mother is dead since and there may be one of his siblings alive. I’m not sure. My thoughts are with the family and, if the report was accurate, the circumstances of him being taken and courtmartialled by the IRA are very sad for his family.”

Now new information to be provided to the commission by former senior IRA woman Dolours Price could help shed light on the whereabouts of Mr Lynskey’s burial place.

The convicted bomber is also said to have vital information relating to alleged informers Seamus Wright and Kevin McKee, also abducted in 1972, whose bodies remain undiscovered.

Both men were members of the IRA and were killed in the aftermath of the discovery of the Four Square Laundry British spy ring.

The decision to disappear their bodies was said to have been taken in a bid to keep a lid on the fact that the organisation had been compromised by the intelligence forces.

All but one of the Disappeared, Captain Robert Nairac, were from strongly nationalist communities. Several were IRA members from fiercely republican families.

IRA debate is said to have taken place at the time at a senior level as to the best way to handle so-called ‘internal discipline’.

There was said to be two viewpoints.

Some IRA members thought the executed bodies of alleged informers should be left out in the open as a warning to others.

However, senior members of the Belfast leadership were said to be concerned at the damage to the image of the republican movement and advocated clandestine burials instead.

Last year the ICLVR confirmed the addition of west Belfast man Peter Wilson, who suffered from learning difficulties, to the Disappeared list.

The 21-year-old went missing from the St James’ area of west Belfast in 1973.

In 1999 the IRA set up a special unit tasked with gathering information to assist with the searches and scores of former members were questioned.

As a result of IRA cooperation, on the day the commission was announced the remains of Eamon Molloy, abducted in 1975, was left in a coffin in Faughart cemetery, Co Louth.

One month later the remains of west Belfast friends John McClory (18) and Brian McKinney (22), missing since 1978, were found in bogland at Colgagh, Co Monaghan.

In 2003 the remains of Belfast mother-of-10 Jean McConville were accidentally discovered on a Co Louth beach.

A number of searches in the area had previously been unsuccessful.

Following a four-year lull in activity and in an attempt to revitalise the commission’s work, respected English detective Geoff Knupfer was brought in to take over the searches in 2007.

The new impetus yielded results when in November 2008 the remains of west Belfast man Danny McIlhone were discovered.

The 21-year-old had been abducted and killed by the IRA in 1981.

His remains were located in a desolate hillside at Ballynultagh, near the village of Lacken in the Wicklow mountains.

Still missing are teenager Columba McVeigh (17), from Donaghmore, Co Tyrone, disappeared in 1975, as well as Brendan Megraw (22), from west Belfast, who vanished in 1978.

The IRA has admitted it killed undercover British soldier Captain Robert Nairac but said it was unable to locate his remains.

Republicans have never admitted involvement in the disappearance of two others – father-of-five Charlie Armstrong (57), who was last seen on his way to Mass in Crossmaglen in August 1981, and Gerard Evans (24), who went missing two years earlier.

The INLA has also assisted the ICLVR with searches in France for the remains of former member Seamus Ruddy.

Seamus Ruddy (35) had been working as a teacher in Paris before being abducted and murdered in 1985 by the INLA.

There have also been several unsuccessful attempts to locate his body.

“Ms. Price’s interviews by Boston College were the subject of news reports published in Northern Ireland in 2010, in which Ms. Price admitted her involvement in the murder and “disappearances” of at least four persons whom the IRA targeted: Jean McConville, Joe Lynskey, Seamus Wright, and Kevin McKee. See Exhibits1 and 2. Moreover, according to one news report, the reporter was permitted to listen to portions of Ms. Price’s Boston College interviews. Id.” – US Government’s Opposition to Motion to Quash, page 4.

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The value of the Oral Tradition is its democracy; it doesn't give to an intellectual elite the exclusive right to shape a communal memory and the collective memory. It makes into a common wealth the story of our shared lives. It's something that we share in common – and it's like a collection plate into which we can all put something: our stories, our myths and the ease with which we are able to, in some way, cross boundaries. - Cleophus Thomas, Jr.

First Circuit Court of Appeals

May, 2013

“… we must forcefully conclude that preserving the judicial power to supervise the enforcement of subpoenas in the context of the present case, guarantees the preservation of a balance of powers… In substance, we rule that the enforcement of subpoenas is an inherent judicial function which, by virtue of the doctrine of separation of powers, cannot be constitutionally divested from the courts of the United States. Nothing in the text of the US-UK MLAT, or its legislative history, has been cited by the government to lead us to conclude that the courts of the United States have been divested of an inherent judicial role that is basic to our function as judges.”

“… the district court acted within its discretion in ordering their production, it abused its discretion in ordering the production of a significant number of interviews that only contain information that is in fact irrelevant to the subject matter of the subpoena.”

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